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Recently, the adoption of Unity (a new desktop management system) by Canonical has led many users to complain about the inability to customize it. In fact, you can manipulate Unity via: CCSM, Ubuntu Tweak, gconf-editor, editor-dconf.
Some months ago up popped another program: MyUnity. In little time it has become appreciated by users due to two ingredients: simplicity and aesthetics.
We talked to the two main developers of the tool to see the idea behind MyUnity and what plans they have for the future.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
UIELinux, a LUG in Italy, usually takes place on Thursday evenings over a beer and bowls full of popcorn at the pub Mapaleo Savignano:
Davide: .. finished installing Ubuntu, the first thing I do is reduce the font. On 11 I do not like it, it's too large. I try but can not find the font manager. Did they move it somewhere I'm saying. But it's not there. Natty in there! Fabio: You can do it. From gconf you can do everything: font, launcher, themes, icons, everything. Davide: Sure I can do it, but that's not the point: I expect to find a system tool that allows me to do it with ease. Gconf is not exactly the most user-friendly, do not you think? Fabio: Mah. I do not know, in my opinion is not necessary but sooner or later, Canonical will do anything. Davide: But in the meantime there is nothing. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has never seen Ubuntu. Fabio: Ok, I will think.
The Birth Of MyUnity
During the following Saturday and Sunday Fabio writes the code that will be version 1, Davide designed the aesthetic part of the GUI and Sergio creates the logo and icon.
After uploading to the network, a word of mouth among users and with hundreds of link hits every hour, everyone wants to configure Unity.
In the beginning we got advice and suggestions from individuals, and various articles that appeared in journals and blogs that encouraged us to improve the characteristics of this simple configurator.
On the recommendation of Paolo Sammicheli (Ubuntu), and bringing Andrea Colangelo (Ubuntu MOTU) into the team, the LaunchPad project begins and starts to take shape in a much more structured and uniform way.
The structure of the source is modified to meet the strict criteria of the packages.
Meanwhile, Davide and Sergio continue to modify the GUI and bake in version 2.0 on December 10: In the blogosphere you multiply the positive comments.
With the arrival of Precise (12.04) and the new version of Unity, the code undergoes a significant modification enriched with additional setting possibilities. With the help of Stefano “Teo” Teodorani and his precious script, we can also manage themes and icons.
Davide certainly can not think of using the GUI of 2.0 and 3.0, so MyUnity is forked while Andrea asked Canonical for a chance to put the tool in the official records.
With the release of version 3, Davide also created the official website of the project which includes pictures and comments, while Marco “Markuz” Sgarzi deals with translation into English.
Why has it succeeded? Davide was right, users wanted the freedom to manipulate Unity. We like to think that the simplicity, immediacy and visual impact have in part contributed to the success.
Why have you written in Gambas? The reason is fundamental and unavoidable, as Davide and I both know this language very well .
The speed with which you can create applications, however, is considerable and this choice has no influence on the success.
MyUnity compared to Ubuntu Tweak, what do you think? MyUnity is a tool designed to configure the Unity environment and nothing else, with the utmost simplicity. Any modification occurs in a user space, thus avoiding disrupting the system. Restoring the default settings to run any test is easy and safe.
Ubuntu Tweak is a very powerful tool. It offers many settings and manipulations at a low level, but not all users understand or know what to do. When you drive a car you know how powerful the accelerator can be and must be used correctly, otherwise there is serious trouble.
MyUnity and Ubuntu Tweak are two very different applications.
These days more configutation tools are appearing, are you afraid that they might exceed the popularity of MyUnity?
MyUnity is an exchange of opinions that was born at the bar in front of a good beer. All'nizio was more of a challenge, because there was no such thing. If Canonical chooses to fill this gap by creating a tool for Ubuntu ad-hoc so be it. I do not see the problem, and that's the beauty of free software: everyone can do something better (or worse) for the community.
What can we expect from future versions? In 3.1, which will be released soon, we have solved a number of bugs including the recognition of Unity2d. We believe there is still considerable room for maneuvering the various settings that can be added. But it is essential to balance the ability of making changes with the ease of use. You should not feel displaced or distressed, but understand immediately what to do to get the desired result. The simpler the GUI, the less need there is for instruction manuals.
Current version: 3.1 http://www.uielinux.org/myunity https://launchpad.net/~myunity
Team: FABIO Colinelli (Italy) Core developer pixel.ubuntu@gmail.com www.ubuntu-it.org DAVIDE Pedrelli (Italy) GUI developer pobox.davide@gmail.com www.uielinux.org Sergio Gridelli (Italy) Graphic developer sergio.gridelli@gmail.com www.uielinux.org ANDREA COLANGELO (Italy) Package maintainer warp10@ubuntu.com www.andreacolangelo.com STEFANO Teodorani (Italy) bash script consultant s.teodorani@gmail.com www.uielinux.org MARCO Sgarzi (Italy) Web site translator msgarzi@gmail.com www.uielinux.org